Cards: too many errors, too little magic

Cardinals

Updated 12:05 am, Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Cardinals pitcher Kyle Lohse didn't make it out of the third inning Monday, partly because his defense let him down.

Cardinals pitcher Kyle Lohse didn't make it out of the third inning Monday, partly because his defense let him down.

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

Cards: too many errors, too little magic

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

Two recent inclinations - stagnant offense, shaky defense - trumped the Cardinals' far more famous and long-standing tendency, the one for last-second, dramatic victories in important games.

The defending champions couldn't pull off another crazy postseason comeback in Game 7 of the NLCS on Monday. Rickety fielding and a lack of rallies ensured that the Cardinals' string of six consecutive wins in elimination games came to a thudding end.

"It hurts for sure," St. Louis third baseman David Freese said after his team's 9-0 loss. "We understood last year how cool it is to play deep into October. That is a heck of a team over there. ... The Giants deserved to win the National League pennant."

The Cardinals set an NLCS record for most unearned runs, 10, and a rough third inning from shortstop Pete Kozma, plus an error by center fielder Jon Jay the same inning, compounded the problems St. Louis faced Monday.

Most of the St. Louis players emphasized their lack of hitting rather than any defensive shortcomings, despite six errors in the series.

"It's tough to win when you score one run in three games," Cardinals second baseman Daniel Descalso said flatly. "They just beat us. ... We didn't score any runs, anyway, so (the defense) doesn't really matter. But we didn't make it easy for ourselves."

There was one play that just about everyone was willing to dissect because it was so strange: The broken-bat single by Hunter Pence in the Giants' five-run third inning. The ball hit the bat three times, replays showed - first, breaking the bat and then essentially sliding up the broken barrel.

Understandably, Kozma was moving the wrong way, then, when the ball suddenly veered.

"I was going toward the hole, and the ball went the other way," he said. "I've never seen anything like that."

"That was weird," St. Louis starter Kyle Lohse said. "I tip my hat to them, they played well, but they got a lot of breaks today. Weird things happened."

With their history of late-game heroics, the Cardinals never felt totally out of it, but they just never could mount much of an attack in the final three games of the series.

"I wasn't ready to go home," Lohse said. "I felt like we were going to do some thing things. But we ran out of gas."

Injured Cardinals slugger Lance Berkman held a meeting after the game to tell his teammates to focus on what a fine season they'd had, and to carry that with them through the offseason rather than the pain of the loss.

That message resonated. "I don't think we lose sight of what we accomplished," outfielder Matt Holliday said. "We played until Oct. 22 and there are only two other teams left, but obviously right now it stings."

"I'm proud of what we accomplished," Freese said. "It's frustrating, but someone's got to go home. And it's us."

Cards D-flated

The Giants used four hits and two walks to score five times in the third inning Monday. They also got a helping hand - or more accurately, some fumbling hands - from the Cardinals. A look at St. Louis' defensive lapses in the inning, only one of which was ruled an error:

Hunter Pence at-bat, bases loaded: Pence hits a weirdly curving line drive past shortstop Pete Kozma. Nothing Kozma could do about it, but center fielder Jon Jay boots the ball and doesn't exactly throw a strike back to the infield. Jay's error allows Buster Posey - not to be confused with Usain Bolt - to score all the way from first on what is ruled a two-run double for Pence.

Brandon Crawford at-bat, bases loaded: There are still no outs as Crawford sends a chopper over the mound. Kozma gloves it and has only one play, to first. Instead, he throws home, much too late to get Pence. It's correctly ruled a fielder's choice and an RBI for Crawford.

Angel Pagan at-bat, bases loaded: With one out, Pagan bounces what should be a routine double-play ball to short. Kozma's lob takes too long to get to second baseman Daniel Descalso, enabling Pagan to beat the relay throw to first. Again, no error, but a defensive mistake nonetheless as Brandon Belt's scores the Giants' fifth run of the inning and seventh of the game.